


A Brief guide to tagging your fanfiction

by Anonymous



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 11:01:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17405705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: What the title says, Sorry in advance for clogging the relationship tags. (Kind of hypocritical if you read this guide.)





	A Brief guide to tagging your fanfiction

A Brief Guide on how to tag your Overwatch fanfiction

 

For the purpose of better recognition (and as an example) this has been tagged with various Overwatch related pairings. Bear with me, please. I’ll try to keep this short.

 

Contents:

 

0.0 Introductionary sentences

1\. The tagging system, how it works on Ao3

2\. The purpose of the tagging system

3\. Structure of tagging

4\. Obsolete tags. 

 

The base of this nifty little guide was, that as an avid reader I’ve found many abuse of the tagging system within the last years. Not on a base of malevolence but lack of knowledge. Ever looked for a pairing and then you got everything but that as your main pairing? Ever got asked to tag a side ship, please? 

Of course there is the great exclude feature these days which can be used to avoid the more common ones like “fluff” and “angst”. It remains faulty however if you are in fact not against said pairing, just wish for it to be not the main concern of the story. (more often than not every single relationship is tagged, leaving the tagging system intended to be an overview cluttered and unclear even confusing at times.) 

I hope this small guide can clear some things up for you writers out there and help to improve the fandom experience.

 

1\. The tagging system and how it works on Ao3

(For an indepth explanation see also on how to search for fanfiction https://archiveofourown.org/faq/search-and-browse?language_id=en#howtosearch)

The system works with the space button acting as an unwritten AND in the same field (we are mostly searching by tags here I won’t go into the author explanation see the link up there). That means Gabriel Reyes will find Gabriel Reyes but also include Reaper Gabriel reyes as it includes Gabriel Reyes. 

What does this mean for tagging in particular? If I have a side pairing say Mercy/Pharah and I tag it as Side Mercy/Pharah it will still be found by people looking for Mercy/Pharah as main ship. 

Except those people know how to use the search commands, which most people don’t keep that in mind.  
Someone using the “Side Mercy/Pharah” will find Side Mercy/Pharah in that exact wording but who of us is looking for side ships? (also the system is slightly buggy by default of everyone tagging as they want)

“side mchanzo” put in the search bar will find you all side mchanzo tagged fanfic is what I am saying. 

\- stands for excluding -Hanzo Shimada will exclude our dear Shimada from all our searches. So if he has a real brief appearance, just don’t tag him. 

 

What does this mean for me?

To make it easier for people put side pairings in the summary, they will not clog up other relationship tags that way. Of course not if they are a deep part of the story but side pairings should not be put in the tags. Brief mention of Tracer/Emily? Keep it out. And if anyone is bothered by it : It’s not your concern tbh. The tagging system was not intended to keep every ship catalogued and nobody is forced to read fanfic I believe.

If I got a story that is equal Spiderbyte and mchanzo that should be tagged with both relationships. Otherwise keep it short and simple. The smaller your tagging window is the easier it is for the reader to discern their triggers and the general direction of the story.

 

 

2\. The purpose of the tagging system.

remember fanfiction net? Where all we had was Two characters, a rating and two genres max.? Yeah. Good times. 

The tagging system is a shortcut to the who what when where of a summary. That means: Who is involved(Lena Oxton, Reinhardt/Ana)? What is involved (Kinks, warnings, genre) when (Post crisis, golden age , Au, middle ages whatever) where (you can keep that for the summary tbh. 

That means you give someone a really short overview not a lengthy explanation of the story to excuse a lack of summary. Rather a solid summary than a tag list an elbow long. 

It is NOT made to replace the summary, the content itself or add commentary by the writer (writer’s notes y’all). It’s frankly distracting. 

 

 

3\. The structure of tagging (Or, how do I tag?)

We start with the main ship and/or characters. If it is the main focus leave it at that, even if there is mchanzo or spiderbyte on the side (As explained it will appear everywhere and clog other ships “inbox” this is especially daunting for rare pair shippers. Just be courteous if you believe they need mentioning as past relationship etc. put them at the end of your summary.

When/where is it:  
AU? What kind? , Post-Omnic Crisis? Pre-War? 

Warnings and kinks: Bondage, Age play, Torture that kinda stuff should definitely be tagged. However if you tag Humiliation and public Humiliation just stick to one whichever fits best. I talked about clogging your tag page right? So no repetitions if possible.

And then add genre: Drama, Hurt/comfort, Comedy etc. Take common ones, do not think of new words or stuff because it will not appear in search engines, that beats the purpose. Inventing tags is srsly no necessary.  
That means if I write: Drama I do not have to write dramatic, sad, tragedy behind it. 

The general tone will be delivered by your summary later on anyway. (You can do it. I believe in you.)

 

 

4\. Obsolete Tags 

 

“Side” pairing being tagged as such, as I explained above, it’s sad but it simply is like that. It does not work the way it’s intended as of now. 

Also consider to abstain from tags like fluffy angsty, dramatic, Hanzo is a salty scion etc. as they are not useful within the search feature and your tags.

 

At last: two Examples how to tag well and how it should not look:  
( I took examples from other fandoms and blackened out things to keep anonymity)

 

I underlined some tags that are repetitive, ambiguous(use a clearer Tag) or should be subject of the summary. especially people on phone will see a big bulk of tags keep that in mind. For example “Everybody needs a hug” would be interpreted as Drama by me thus I’d use Drama of course that is a popular tag so you can still use it I guess. I am just trying to open the eyes a little to this matter.

Also a lot of character tags! Keep in mind that these will appear in every search so someone looking for let’s say Jiraiya in this example will likely be disappointed to find him mentioned only in passing. 

The latter one has only the necessary tags, apparently no warnings and the rest could be subject of the summary.

 

Try not to use writer’s notes as tags, write them in the writer’s notes in fact! You can make longer sentences, share insecurities and look for a Beta even. It’s pretty great that Ao3 allows Writer’s notes at the end and the beginning of a story. 

I hope this small guide helps some of you through the tagging jungle and what a jungle it is! It’s intended to make the experience more practical and easier to find the fanfic you actually want and to gather a reader’s attention. 

I almost forgot! I you got a lot of characters going on I recommend the “Overwatch ensemble” tag. : ) You don’t have to tag every single character making a cameo that way. 

 

Contents of this guide are subjects of change depending on commentary, I am only human and there are things I forget about. Feel free to inform me of these.

**Author's Note:**

> It's really interesting to see how many people form an opinion to only say "this has been done before". So have been High-School Aus.


End file.
